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The Numismatic and Antiquarian 
Society of Philadelphia. 



William Penn's 

Landing in Pennsylvania 



THE 



Bi-Centennial Anniversary 

DATE FOR CELEBRATION 

IN A. D. 1882. 

1 

REPORT 



MAJORITY OF THE COMMITTEE 

Appointed to consider and report on the above. 



PHILADELPHIA. 
I88l. 



Nil 



ONLY ONE HUNDRED COPIES PRINTED FOR THE USE OF 
MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY. 



GILLIN & NAGLH PRINTING HOUSE, 230-232 SOUTH FIFTH STREET. 



TO THE 

NUMISMATIC AND ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY 

OF PHILADELPHIA. 

The subscribers, a majority of the Committee appointed by 
your honorable Society, to consider and report upon 
the proper day upon which should be celebrated the 
Bi-Centennial Anniversary of the landing of William 
Penn in his then Province, now State, of Pennsylvania, 
Respectfully report : — 

That they have held meetings and considered the 
subject matter of the above resolution, at which said meet- 
ings they did not all agree, the Chairman of the Committee 
not being in accord with the balance of the Committee ; 
that the latter, the subscribers hereto, think that the proper 
day for the celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of 
William Penn's landing in his then Province, now State, of 
Pennsylvania, should be on the natural day of A. D. 1882, 
which by the altered or so called new style, will bear the 
same name in the present used calendar, as the month and 
day of the month ; as the natural and actual day of William 
Penn's arrival in his then Province, now State, of Pennsyl- 
vania, in the year A. D. 1682, was named according to then, 
now called old, style, in the then used calendar, by month 
and day of the month, viz. : — - 

William Penn arrived in A. D. 1682, say October 29th. 
Two hundredth anniversary in A. D. 1882, say October 29th. 
In arriving at the above conclusion the majority of 
your Committee has been governed by the following pre- 
cedents. The principle underlying the Bull of Pope Gregory 
XIII, February 24th, A. D. 1582, altering the then calendar 
style, is that in case of annually recurring fixed days, not 
involving rights of property, the same nominal days should 
be retained, that is the days of celebrations after the altera- 
tion of the calendar by the Bull are to be of the same 
named days in the new style as they were in the old style, 
before the promulgation and going into effect of the said 
Papal Bull. 



4 

The Bull of Gregory XIII, did not disturb the fixed 
religious days and change them from their old accustomed 
positions in the calendar, as they were before the Bull went 
into effect ; under it they were and are now continued on 
the same nominal days. Blondel writing in A. D. 1682, 
gives a Gregorian calendar containing 196 fixed days for 
the Roman Church, of which 56 are to be found in the 
calendar attached to the Act of George II, hereafter cited. 
The Spaniard Ribadeneyra about A. D. 1669, gives 113 
fixed days of the Roman Church. 

The Act of Parliament of 24, George II, c. 23, A. D. 
175 1, which was made when the American Colonies were 
part of the British Dominions, was by its words applied to 
them, and was in force within the bounds of this State when 
it was a Colony, and having been passed prior to the Revolu- 
tion of Independence and adopted by acquiescence, altered 
the calendar style in the then Province, now State, of Pennsyl- 
vania (Price on Limitations 368-369). It ordered certain of 
the anniversary days of old style to be observed on the 
same nominal days of new style, viz. : — 

I. All fixed feast days, holy days and fast days kept 
in the Church of England. (S6:ction III). 

II. Alf solemn days of thanksgiving and of fasting 
and humiliation, established by Act of Parliament. (Sec- 
tion III). 

III. All fixed days for meetings of bodies politic and 
corporate. (Section I). 

IV. All fixed days for holding courts, except some 
courts held with fairs. (Section I). 

Of the I and II of these, the calendar attached to the 
Act gives 97, and of those which are of a religious char- 
acter, the Protestant Episcopal Church of this country 
retained 24 of the same date as in the calendar last named. 

These fixed days of feasts, holy days, fasts, &c, con- 
stitute a large array of instances. Most of them may be 
strictly termed anniversaries, and were formerly observed 
on old style dates, and have been, since the Bull or the Act, 



5 

regarded for purposes of celebration as happening on the 
same nominal days, new style, as they formerly did on now- 
called old style. That they were for the most part religious 
anniversaries does not alter their effect and force as prece- 
dents ; indeed, some of the annually occurring celebrations, 
to which the foregoing remarks will apply, were not in any 
view religious, viz : 

The Gunpowder Plot, November 5th, O. S. 

The Execution of Charles I, January 30th, O. S. 

The Restoration of Charles II, May 29, O. S 

The Great Fire in London, September 2d, O. S. 

These are some which have been, since the Act of Par- 
liament, observed on the same nominal days, new or altered 
style, as they were in old style. 

The celebration of the Gunpowder Plot was observed in 
Taunton, Massachusetts, as late as November 5th, N. S., 1775. 

Christmas has been and is kept both in old and new 
style, on the 25th day of December. To these may be added 
days of celebrating anniversaries in Germany, 

Reformation in Germany, October 31st, 15 17. 

Confession of Faith at Augsburg, June 25th, 1530. 

Adoption by Germany of the Book of Concord 

June 25th, 1580, 
as a few of those repeated without change of style. But 
we have precedents also in our own State. 

The first meeting of " The Society to Commemorate 
the Landing of William Penn," was held at Philadelphia on 
November 4th, 1824, in place of October 24th, 1682, O. S., 
by adding on to the latter date 1 1 days for change of style. 
The Society held its anniversaries on the assumption that 
William Penn landed in his Province of Pennsylvania, on the 
24th day of October, A. D. 1682, O. S., and this was the 
I42d, but they soon discovered their mistake in adding on 
the 1 1 days, and discontinued it, having their subsequent 
celebrations on the actual nominal day, October 24th. The 
Constitution and By-laws were adopted February 2d, 1825. 
Among the original members were Peter S. Duponceau, 



John Read, William Meredith, Richard Peters, Jr., Thomas 
I. Wharton, Joseph Parker Norris, Robert Wharton, we 
suppose the former Mayor of the City, Zachariah Poulson, 
Benjamin R. Morgan, George Vaux, Roberts Vaux, John 
F. Watson (the historian), and Joseph S. Lewis. Among 
the officers, were such well-known men as Thomas I. 
Wharton, Richard Peters, Joshua Francis Fisher, Joseph 
Parker Norris. The celebrations have been as follows : 

Celebration, October 24th, 1825, address C. J. Ingersoll. 

Meeting, October 24th, 1825, thanks to C. J. Ingersoll. 

Celebration, October 24th, 1826, address by Thomas 
I. Wharton. 

Meeting, October 24th, 1826, thanks to Thomas I. 
Wharton. 

Celebration, October 24th, 1827, address by J. N. 
Barker. 

Meeting, October 24th, 1827, thanks to J. N. Barker. 

Celebration, October 24th, 1832, address by Peter S. 
Duponceau. 

Meeting, October 24th, 1832, thanks to Peter S. Du- 
ponceau. 

Celebration, October 24th, 1836, address, by Job R. 
Tyson. 

Meeting, October 24th, 1836, thanks to Job R. Tyson. 

The birthday of Thomas Paine, was January 29th, 
1736, the celebration of it was in New York City, January 
29th, 1 88 1. 

A strong reason against changing the style in celebra- 
ting the anniversary also is, because a change will tend to 
prevent the people's familiarity with the actual nominal day 
upon which the event really happened, and will unsettle their 
minds on the subject, whereas, if the style is not altered, the 
actual nominal day of the happening of the occurrence is 
fixed. A precedent that can be urged against this view of 
not changing the style, but celebrating on the nominal day 
old style, is the example of change as to the celebration of 



7 

the birthday of General George Washington, but this will 
not apply to the present question, for it is specially provi- 
ded for in the said Act of Parliament, of George II, as to 
birthdays and coming of age. George Washington was 
born February nth, A. D. 1732, and therefore became of 
age, if the said Act had not been passed, on the nth Feb- 
ruary, A. D. 1753, but the Act went into effect on the 3d 
day of September, A. D. 1752, which had 11 days added to 
it, and was called on that 3d day of September, A. D. 1752, 
the 14th day of September, A. D. 1752 ; this would, if not 
provided for, have made all twenty-first birthday celebrations, 
coming after its passage, happen eleven days earlier than they 
would have done otherwise, and would have affected legal 
rights in property, &c. This was, however, provided for in 
the Act of George II, before mentioned. The VI section of 
the Act providing : 

" That nothing in this present Act contained shall 
" extend or be construed to extend, to accelerate or antici- 
" pate * * * the time of the attaining the age of one and 
" twenty years, or any other age requisite by any law, 
" custom, usage, &c, whatsoever, for the doing any act, or 
"for any other purpose whatsoever, by any person or 
" persons now born or who shall be born, before the said 
" 14th day of September, * * * and no person or persons 
" whatsoever shall be deemed or taken to have attained the 
" said age of one and twenty years, or any such age as 
"aforesaid, * * * until the full number of years and 
" days shall have elapsed on which such person or persons 
"respectively would have attained such age, * * * in 
" case this act had not been made." 

The twenty-first anniversary of the birthday of George 
Washington could not therefore have happened by the 
express provisions of the Act, until the 22d day of 
February, A. D. 1753, N. S. and he became of lawful age 
on that day, and not on the nth day of February, A. D. 
I 753> N. S. Our Act of the Pennsylvania Legislature making 
the 22d day of February a legal holiday, calls that day, the 



014 209 173 2 % 



birthday of Washington, but that is not really the fact, as 
he was born on the nth day of February, old style, but 
became of age on the 22d day of February, new style, 
because by the change in the calendar, the 22d day of 
February answered to that which would have been the I ith 
day of February, had the Act of George II not been passed 
and the calendar not altered. 

We also think if any change of style is to be made at 
the present time it would be correct to add on 12 and not 
io days or n days; io days would have been proper if the 
change had been made in A. D. 1682, but in the 18th cen- 
tury another day had been lost by the precession of the 
equinoxes, and in the 19th century up to A. D. 1882, about 
one more day for the like reason, which causes the differ- 
ence between the tropical and sidereal year. If a change in 
the calendar had been made in A. D. 1852, instead of A. D. 
1752, 100 years having elapsed since 1752, one more day 
would have to have been added making the full 1 2 days . In 
Russia the calendar has not ever been changed by the Bull 
or any law from so-called old style, and when a change is 
made to our present style, 12 days are added to make our 
date of the same time as the r date. For instance Alex- 
ander II was killed the 1st day of March, 1881, Russian or 
old style, and his death was announced in our newspapers 
as happening on the 13th day of March, 1881 our style. 
12 days added to the Russian or old style. 

And in further support of these views, we request the 
members of the Society to read carefully the essays lately 
published by the Society, called : " Act and Bull," and " Old 
and New Style Fixed Dates, Calendars, and the principles 
and Rules of Emendations." 

Resolved, that this Committee be discharged from the 
further consideration of the subject: all which is respectfully 
submitted. 

ISAAC MYER. 

D. G. BRINTON, M. D. 
April 7th, 1 88 1. JNO. R. BAKER. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 209 173 2 



